Computer files can be transferred between computers using one of a variety of protocols, most of which are intended for use with personal computer operating systems (OS). For example, the generic File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for PCs, which essentially is a top level application program that relies on processing and communication layers in a PC OS, enables files to be transferred with security control to do such things as navigate, create, and delete directories, and to copy and delete files, and so on. A more widely used protocol is the server message block (SMB) protocol, which facilitates even more operations including sharing files, serial ports, and printers. SMB can also provide for two levels of security.
Yet a third protocol for transferring files between devices is Bluetooth, which is intended for wireless environments and which essentially offers the same capabilities as FTP. All of these protocols assume use with a PC OS and require both ends of the transmission (client and server, for instance) to possess communication protocol stacks that match each other.
As understood herein, the above protocols are designed with the PC OS in mind, but that other OS such as Palm OS are used in smaller wireless devices such as wireless telephones and personal digital assistants (PDA). As further understood herein, the Palm OS does not have all of the PC OS features that conventional file sharing protocols assume. For example, as recognized herein, the Palm OS does not have a conventional file system in its internal memory, which is relatively small. Rather, files are stored as databases with header information. Further, network communication support in Palm OS is confined to the transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) layer. With the above observations in mind, the present invention has been provided.